


candy rain

by thunderylee



Category: NewS (Band)
Genre: Canon Universe, M/M, Romance, discussion of ocd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-29
Updated: 2011-12-29
Packaged: 2019-01-22 11:19:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12480348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thunderylee/pseuds/thunderylee
Summary: Getting along with Massu takes a lot of active forethought, which Tegoshi didn’t really come equipped with.





	candy rain

**Author's Note:**

> reposted from agck.

Working with Masuda Takahisa is no easy feat. Tegoshi thinks he deserves an award for all of the hoops he has to jump through every day, the flaming coal and eggshells he has to walk on every time they’re in the same room. Even when they’re separated, like when Tegoshi calls Massu at three A.M. because he has a good song idea and wants to tell Massu about it before he forgets.

Getting along with Massu takes a lot of active forethought, which Tegoshi didn’t really come equipped with. He doesn’t like being bitched at, though, so he learned to predict Massu’s behavior based on past events and adjust his own accordingly. When he started studying psychology, he realized that what he’s been doing is conditioning himself to think this way, just like a rat in a lab. Tegoshi’s cuter than a rat, though, so maybe a fluffy guinea pig. Or a chinchilla.

Psychology, in all of its uncertainty, is a fascinating field of study. Tegoshi learned a lot about himself and other people that he probably wouldn’t have devoted his energy to before. The research stuff was tedious and boring, which was mainly why he didn’t write his thesis, but he’s not that concerned about it. Clearly he was meant to be an idol anyway. Now he’s just an idol with a little insight into the human psyche, particularly Massu’s.

For all of his quirks, Massu is probably the easiest to read. He’s very predictable and consistent in his behavior, as strange as it is. He’s also very honest when he’s bothered, which is really the only reason Tegoshi knows at all. Psychology may be interesting, but it doesn’t make him psychic. He takes everything at face value and hears words as they’re spoken, which means things like passive aggression and mind games are completely wasted on him.

Tegoshi has a long list of things that annoy Massu, mostly things that Tegoshi himself does. He was going to confront him with it once, then thought better of it. In abnormal psychology class, he learned that there are many forms of obsessive-compulsive disorder, and while he wouldn’t diagnose Massu with it officially, he definitely displays many of the symptoms. It doesn’t seem to give him any distress, though, so it doesn’t seem logical to fix what’s not broken.

Besides, Massu’s OCD is part of what makes them work so well together. If Massu was lax and carefree like Tegoshi, they’d never get anything done. Tegoshi thinks it’s a perfect balance, actually, pairing the oblivious Tegoshi with the extremely conscientious Massu. It’s like their personalities harmonize as well as their voices. Sometimes that old man knows what he’s doing after all.

Even if Tegoshi knows it drives Massu crazy. He tries, though, keeping his operant conditioning in mind whenever they work together. Now that NEWS has activities again, there will be twice as much Massu in his life. One is really enough, if you ask him, and as much as Tegoshi cares about Massu and wants to make their business relationship work, he can’t manually control his own actions twenty-four hours a day. It’s inevitable that he will fall back into his old habits and piss off Massu again, and this time Koyama and Shige will be caught in the middle of it.

What he needs, Tegoshi deducts, is to condition  _Massu_  to tolerate him better. It’s not fair that Tegoshi’s the only one making the effort here. Massu would argue that he makes an effort every day he works with Tegoshi and resists the urge to punch him in the face, but Tegoshi knows he doesn’t really mean it. Tegoshi’s face is way too pretty to rearrange like that.

The first thing Tegoshi tries is food. Complete strangers all over the world know that food is the best way to Massu’s heart, and it works for a couple hours. Then Tegoshi taps his pen on the table and Massu grabs his wrist to stop him. It doesn’t hurt, just disappoints him. He’d really thought that treating the group to meat buns would grant him immunity from Massu’s issues. He’d been wrong.

Defeated, his next idea is to shower Massu with thoughtful gifts. Tegoshi loves it when people buy him things for no reason, especially if they’re things he likes. Massu is tricky to shop for, but Tegoshi has known him for so long that it’s like second nature. It only takes a few hours of his life to stock up on patterned clothing, shiny ear cuffs, and other random things that are perfect for Massu. If it’s useful, Massu will like it. Tegoshi knows this to be a fact.

Except that giving Massu unexpected presents has a downside in the form of Koyama and Shige making  _assumptions_. “Something you want to tell us, Tego?” Koyama teases on the third day, while Shige smirks knowingly and Massu just accepts his travel-size food dehydrator with bewildered gratitude (he’d mentioned wishing he had one on their last tour).

“Experiment,” is all Tegoshi says, but Koyama and Shige keep grinning like they know a dirty secret. They can think whatever they want.

Massu’s considerably nicer to Tegoshi that week, if not incredibly confused, but the irritable snaps are still there. Tegoshi knows Massu can’t help it; these kinds of triggers are involuntary. According to his textbook, which he’d unearthed from the depths of his closet to review, exposure therapy is the best way to deal with compulsive behavior. However, purposely throwing Massu’s stuff on the floor to prove to him that it’s not going to contract hepatitis is not exactly the smartest thing to do. Tegoshi values his life.

It comes to him in the middle of the night, an idea so genius that he can’t believe he didn’t think of it before now. What Massu needs in order to forget about his issues is to release his tension in  _other_  ways. To put it bluntly, he needs to get laid. Regularly. Tegoshi doesn’t think they’ve ever even discussed it – Massu’s private life is private – but if Massu was seeing someone, he’d definitely be less prone to getting all worked up over little, meaningless things.Tegoshi doesn’t care much about anything after he gets some, almost to the point where he’s completely useless.

Laying awake in bed, he runs every female he knows through his six-point inspection screening process for entry into Massu’s pants. They have to be clean, obviously, without any annoying habits. Tegoshi doesn’t exactly know what Massu likes in a girl, other than the generic answers they all give in interviews, but he could write a book on the kind of behavior necessary to keep him happy. And the more he thinks about it, the more he realizes that nobody he knows passes the test.

“Your experiment doesn’t seem to be going well,” Shige comments while Massu’s out having lunch and Koyama’s braving the KAT-TUN den. “While I don’t exactly know what you’re doing, I’ve never seen you put so much effort into something for someone else’s sake, so I thought I would offer my assistance. Massu and I are good friends, you know.”

“That may be true, but I know him better than you,” Tegoshi replies briskly, then smiles as he thinks of a way to make Shige useful. “Do you know if he likes anyone?”

Shige’s grin tells him that he’s getting the complete wrong idea, but Tegoshi can’t be bothered to reword his question. It will just look like backpedalling anyway. “I don’t think so,” Shige replies. “He says he’s not interested in a relationship right now, but you know how that goes.”

“Hmm,” Tegoshi thinks out loud, followed by a sigh. “I wish this society wasn’t so adamant against casual sex. This would make everything so much easier.”

Now Shige looks a cross between smug and traumatized, and Tegoshi leaves him to his own imagination as he reluctantly gives up on this particular avenue. It may make things worse if he tries to shove someone onto Massu when he doesn’t want it. Consent is kind of important for these kinds of things, at least for people like Massu. Tegoshi himself is down for whatever – sometimes it’s hotter when he’s coerced into it, but that’s neither here nor there.

Back to square one, then. Tegoshi won’t give up, especially since he’s already put so much thought and energy into this. He  _will_  cure Massu, not just for his own satisfaction but for Massu’s sanity. It can’t be that pleasant to be aggravated all the time, especially at Tegoshi. Tegoshi is fun and means well and should be everyone’s favorite person to be around.

“Hey, do you want any of these?” Koyama asks before the next meeting, holding out an array of small hand sanitizers. “Bath and Body Works had a sale over Halloween and I went kind of crazy.”

“Sure,” Tegoshi says politely, picking the orange one. “Did you offer them to Massu?”

Koyama frowns. “He said it’s too weird to put colored liquid on his skin. Typical Massu.”

“Mm,” Tegoshi agrees as he squirts the substance onto his hands. He’s instantly attacked by the scent of candy corn and grins. “Smells delicious! Thanks, Kei-chan.”

That day’s rehearsal is interesting. Tegoshi doesn’t know if it’s because it’s their first time dancing together in over a year or what, but Massu seems especially distracted. It’s a little embarrassing, since Massu is by far the best dancer in the group and he keeps tripping over his feet on simple moves.

“Sorry,” he keeps saying, and the others just wave it off. Nobody expects NEWS to dance in sync anyway.

Tegoshi has to abandon his Massu project while they prepare for their comeback single, putting all of his energy and concentration into doing his best for the new NEWS. He can return to Massu and his issues later, which are oddly becoming less and less prominent as the days go by. Normally Tegoshi would chalk it up to being busy, but that has made Massu even more stressed in the past.

Now he’s just acting disoriented and making silly mistakes. He sits next to Tegoshi on Music Station and completely misses the question directed at him, looking like he was pulled from a dream when he finally speaks. It’s the exact opposite of anxious, like his brain has turned off and he doesn’t quite know how to function anymore. Tegoshi usually wonders how Massu dresses himself in the morning, but that’s more in regards to his clothing choices as opposed to the active coherence of doing it. He’s gotten to the point where he’s concerned about Massu’s safety when the older man drives off at the end of the day in a daze.

“What did you do to him?” Koyama demands, looking right at Tegoshi.

“Nothing!” Tegoshi replies, pouting defensively. “When I stopped trying is when this happened. I don’t know what did it.”

“He won’t tell me anything,” Shige inputs, and Tegoshi frowns as Shige lords his ‘he likes me better than you’ status over his head again. “He looks ashamed about it, actually. You don’t think he’s on drugs, do you?”

Koyama gasps, then forcefully shakes his head. “No way. Massu wouldn’t do that.”

“Maybe there’s a girl after all,” Tegoshi says quietly.

“Must be a hell of a girl to break through that wall,” Koyama says with a hint of a proud smile. “We’ll just have to wait it out, I guess. He’ll tell us when he’s ready.”

Tegoshi’s downhearted for the rest of the day, which is about as angsty as he gets, and he doesn’t know why until he sorts out his thoughts later. He’s disappointed that he wasn’t the one to fix Massu, after all of that effort he put into it, and these aren’t exactly the benefits he wanted to reap. Massu was supposed to get over his quirks and enjoy Tegoshi’s company more. Tegoshi wanted to be less of a hindrance and more of a special person in Massu’s life.

Now Tegoshi lays awake at the realization of what all of this  _means_ , and he actually calls Koyama at three A.M. with his epiphany. Koyama’s still asleep, mumbling to him about pink elephants and candy hearts, but that’s all Tegoshi needs to hear. It makes so much sense that he doesn’t believe it at first, because it’s so far out there, but there’s no other explanation for it.

Tegoshi wants Massu to like  _him_.

“Is Massu’s OCD contagious or something?” Shige jokes as he nudges Tegoshi before rehearsal the next day. “You’ve been putting that stuff on every hour.”

Tegoshi looks down at the almost empty orange bottle. “It’s not what you think. It just smells really good!”

Massu walks in then, squeezing by Tegoshi to put his bag on the table, and freezes. He’s so close that Tegoshi can  _feel_ his shiver, which has him staying stone still so he doesn’t unknowingly do anything  _else_  to make Massu uncomfortable.

“That’s it,” Massu says sharply, his voice lower than Tegoshi remembers it being and entirely too close to his ear. “I can’t take it anymore,” and he grabs Tegoshi by the arm and yanks him right out the door, leaving an amused Shige in their wake.

“Massu, what did I do?” Tegoshi gets out as he struggles to keep up so that he’s not literally dragged behind Massu. “Whatever it is, I’m sorry, please don’t hit me. My face is my job.”

“I’m not going to hit you,” Massu grumbles, continuing to power-walk until they’re all the way out of the building in the very, very cold courtyard. Massu still has his coat on, but Tegoshi doesn’t, and Massu looks a little guilty as Tegoshi starts shivering.

“I wasn’t thinking,” he mumbles, “but dammit, it’s your fault! I haven’t been able to think clearly since you started… whatever that is.”

“My fault?” Tegoshi repeats, his teeth starting to chatter. “Whatever  _what_  is? You’ve always told me what I was doing wrong before it got to this point. I can’t read your mind, Massu.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t…” Massu trails off and sighs, his breath a vivid white cloud in the air. “I don’t exactly understand what’s going on, so I certainly didn’t know what to say to you. I still don’t, but Tegoshi, I seriously cannot take that smell for one more second.”

“Smell?” Tegoshi lifts up his hands and inhales the candy corn scent. “The hand sanitizer?”

Massu blinks. “Is that what it is?” He clears his throat. “As glad as I am that you’re practicing good hygiene, that scent seriously messes with my head.”

“I think it smells good,” Tegoshi replies, “but if it bothers you-”

“That’s just it, it doesn’t  _bother_  me,” Massu cuts him off. “It  _does_  smell good, like birthday cake with blue frosting, but it just makes me… unable to concentrate. I don’t know.”

The wheels turn in Tegoshi’s head, and even with as cold as he is, he calmly smiles and moves his hands closer to Massu. Massu flinches at first, then closes his eyes and inhales, only jumping a little bit when Tegoshi presses his knuckles against Massu’s face. His body temperature is probably nearing hypothermia right now, but the second he makes contact with Massu’s skin, he feels warm all over.

“Exactly what does blue frosting smell like?” Tegoshi asks innocently.

Massu takes another deep breath, his eyelashes fluttering a little this time. “Who knows.”

Then his eyes open, and Tegoshi is nearly knocked over by his dark, heated stare. Swallowing hard, Tegoshi carefully trails his fingers under Massu’s nose, down to his chin, and finally outlining his lips while Massu just stands there and breathes so hard that his chest rises and falls with each breath.

“Massu,” Tegoshi whispers, stepping closer. “You look like you want to eat me.”

Wordlessly, Massu parts his lips and Tegoshi’s fingertip runs along the inseam, feeling the warmth inside and it’s Massu who grabs him by the waist, Tegoshi rushing to pull his hand out of the way just in time for Massu to press their mouths together. Tegoshi can hardly believe it, his eyes falling shut as the sparks between their lips tell him this is right, but then Massu’s pulling away without letting go.

Tegoshi expects some more internal conflict, but Massu just pulls a bottle of mouth spray from his pocket and Tegoshi laughs as he opens his mouth obediently. He’s hit with a blast of peppermint and it’s strong enough to sting, but worth it when Massu picks up right where he left off, kissing Tegoshi so vehemently that Tegoshi’s mind spins from the force. Something wraps around him and it’s Massu’s coat, accompanied by Massu’s arms that bring them even closer as they continue kissing in a cloud of peppermint candy corn.

Even after the bottle runs out, Massu’s still drawn to Tegoshi, his unintentional classical conditioning leaving him recalling the scent every time he sees Tegoshi’s face or hears his voice, and Tegoshi thinks that the only thing better than a genius is one who succeeds without trying.


End file.
